Hamilton said a resolution with former strength and conditioning coach Mark Smith has been reached and the process of naming his replacement is going forward.

…

Smith was hired in December by new football coach Lane Kiffin. In late May, however, Kiffin began the process of ousting Smith.

Smith balked at leaving because he wouldn’t be paid his salary if he resigned. He had a two-year agreement worth a total of nearly $400,000.

Hamilton confirmed UT will pay Smith the two years of compensation owed according to his memorandum of understanding for separation without cause.

“We’ll pay that over the remaining time, mitigated by any new job he should undertake,” Hamilton said.

Hard to believe that anyone would expect to be able to shitcan a guy after a mere six months without having to pay the contractual bill, but that’s UT for you these days. You know Spurrier has to be laughing his ass off about this right now.

There were some fairly scurrilous rumors being spread about why Junior wanted Smith gone, but it turns out in the end it was nothing more than that Smith wasn’t Coach O’s guy.

… But several individuals close to the program said recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron was never fully on board with Smith, and that friction ultimately came to a head. There were other factors, too, but the Orgeron factor was the defining issue in Kiffin parting ways with Smith.

It’s a reminder of how much juice Orgeron has with regard to pretty much every decision that’s made within the Tennessee program right now.

Ed Orgeron, the power behind the throne.

I’m guessing the man being discussed as Smith’s replacement knows who butters his bread.

… There’s a connection with Ausmus, too. He was Orgeron’s strength coach at Ole Miss, and Ausmus also worked with Kiffin and Orgeron at Southern California.

2 responses to “Kiffin watch: Richelieu on Red Bull”

Global War on Lane (GWOL) Crisis of the Day (COD) Piece, (extended version – ‘O Takes Over’), 19 June 2009.

Bunker, Green Zone, Knoxville:

Zero Ten Hundred, Department of Gris Gris Gumbo meeting.

Coach O calls meeting of assistant coach troopers to order, doesn’t bother with taking muster. O tells assistant coach troopers that Monte still MIA and AWOL and that Lane has taken an extended three day weekend to Dollywood to recover from The Great Lane Kiffin Debate.

O says he is in charge now and has changed the named of the daily briefing from the Department of Fatherland Security to the Gris Gris Gumbo Get-Together unless and until Monte or Lane overthrow him in a coup, return from being MIA AWOL or return from Dollywood.

O announces that his theme of the day is black magic voodoo and free-weight lifting and that he is the houngan, the male voodoo priest, and that his superhot mambo, his female voodoo priestess, will be Layla Two until AD Hamilton finds a black-haired, brown-eyed superhot student intern that O requisitioned day before yesterday and that in the meantime superhot Layla Two will have to do as the mambo.

Layla Two hands Coach a warm bucket of animal blood that she had to pick up from the UT Vet School. Layla Two never thought she would miss having to go to Starbucks each morning to pick up vanilla lattes and chai tea lattes for Monte and Lane, respectively, but she does now.

Coach O announces that the God-awful Rocky Top so-called music that was piped throughout the Green Zone by Muzak is banned and will be replaced by a compilation of Dr. John’s Greatest Hits. Dr. John will be the houngonikon, the director of music and dancing, from here on out.

Assistant coach trooper Lance Thompson, who used to be Nick Saban’s boy, has the gall to ask O, why can’t we get someone who sings in English because Dr. John is harder to understand than O is. O tells Lance that as soon as O can arrange it, all assistant coach troopers will be taking the Rosetta Stone Cajun and Creole course so don’t worry about it.

O then orders all assistant coach troopers to the weightroom section of the bunker and tells them each to take a big swig of warm animal blood from the bucket and get ready to lift because it’s going to be a long upcoming season.

O knows about the Bataan Death Marches of SEC football seasons, having experienced a few of them himself before being run out of Oxford on a rail.

O knows that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and now that he is in charge, he’s going to start toughening up the rest of these bastards.